Public Amusements.

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S DAHLIA SHOAV . This show took place on AVednesday , and attracted an amount of talent hardly to have been expected at this time of the year . The line of carriages extended to the top of the Exhibition-road , and far along the high road to Kensington . The show of flowers was equal to any exhibition of the same kind that we remember to have seen . There were dahlias of every

variety and colour , and in the greatest possible perfection . But the collection was not confined to dahlias . Late as it is in the season , there were roses which we have rarely seen surpassed . We should exhaust our vocabulary if we attempted to describe iu fitting terms of commendation the China , French , and German asters , the lilies , and the phloxes , but particularl y the asters . One circumstance especially struck us ; it was that a prize was awarded for a dahlia of great size and perfection to an exhibitor from

Bethnalgreen—a locality that we are not much accustomed to associate with floral beauty . AVe may observe that these gardens are now becoming a great success . Everything has been made of the ground ¦ of which it was capable . Nothing can surpass the taste with which the colour of the flowers are harmonised or contrasted , as the case may be . The conservatory is one of the finest and most beautiful buildings of the kind that we have seen , and it is wonderful how much has been accomplished in so short a time , and over how many difficulties the designers of the gardens have triumphed .

The Week,

THE WEEK ,

TUB COTJKT . —Her Majesty , the Prince Consort , aud elder branches of the Royal family ( with the exception of the Prince of AVales ) continue at Balmoral , the juniors being at Windsor . The Prince of Wales is to return from Ireland to Cambridge next week . GENEEAL HOME NEWS . —Wliilst the matutinal monition of the Roman Emperor was " Remember thou shalt die , " the periodical protest of the Registrar-General is " you need not die , or at all events so soon

as you do . " The further carrying out of sanitary measures , says that recorder of the state of public health , might save a great waste of life . But- these admonitory words are accompanied by others of a congratul atory tone , as the information is conveyed that a decrease in the mortality rate of some considerable importance took place last week . In the metropolis there were 1121 deaths , and 1763 births registeredthe latter number representing 871 boys and 897 girls . The barometer

averaged a height of 29 ' 776 inches , and the thermometer a temperature of 62-4 degrees . A review of several of the cadet companies attached to the metropolitan A olunteer corps took place at the Crystal Palace on AVednesday . The lads , who were present to the number of 800 , acquitted themselves in a very creditable manner . Another interesting A olunteer event is the rifle-shooting contest , which is now taking place at Maidstone , under the auspices of the Kent Association . Lancashire

has been visited by such heavy rains as to cause the rivers to overflow their banks , and occasion groat damage to property . The manufacturing town of Todmorden appears to have suffered very severely . It is said that " in many places the water rose eighteen inches higher than in

previous flood ; mills w-ere flooded , cottages filled with water , and one poor man was actually drowned in his bed . " The inquiries made during another week lead the Mark Lane Express to repeat , with greater certainty than before , that the yield of the wheat crop is " short , notwithstanding the general fineness of the quality and heavy weight . " Another life has been lost through fire . The calamity occurred on AVednesday morning at the house of a bootmaker in the Betlmal

Greouroatl , and the sacrificed life was that of a child of eig-lit years of a » -o who was suffocated by the smoke . The trip of the Defence from the Tyne to Chatham affords us the first opportunity of estimating the seagoing qualities of our ironsides . The Defence left the Tyne at ten o ' clock on Thursday night and , with her engines never once at full speed , she completed a distance of 210 miles in 26 hours . The ship anchored at the shipwash on Friday night , and started for Chatham at six

o ' clock on Saturday morning . Chatham was reached at a quarter to one p . m . the same daj ' , greatly to the surprise of the officiafs , who seem to have been quite unprepared for her appearance at so early an hour . It is stated t-hot her engines worked admirably , and that—although the average does not come up to that point—10 i knots an hour were " easily made" at half-speed . It is further asserted that , " although without a single spar or an inch of canvas set , she steamed as steadily and was as easily managed as a river steamboat . " Her Majesty ' s ship Driver , one of the vessels ordered to the west India and North American station , m consequence of the troubles iu the United States , it is announced , been totally lost on one of the dangerous reef ' s of the Bnimahs . It is

satisfactory to know that Captain Nelson and his officers and crew were all saved , and a hope appears to have been entertained , when the mail left , that the guns and stores would be recovered . The man , William Cogan , who is charged with the murder of his wife on the 2 nd of August last , at their house in Newton-street , Holborn , has recovered from the wound in his throat , and was taken on Tuesday from King ' s College Hospital to attend the resumed inquest held before Mr . Brent , the coroner . Cogan , it will be remembered , was found by a policeman walking along the street with a gash in his throat , and the woman was

subsequently discovered with her throat cut and dead . On the present occasion the surgeon reiterated his conviction that the deceased could not have committed suicide , that the wound must have been inflicted by another person . AVhen afl the witnesses had been examined , the prisoner volunteered a statement , in which he asserted that on the night of the tragedy he had gone home and found his wife out , aud laying himself down on the floor , he immediately fell asleep . The next thing that he became conscious of was being at the door , passing into the street , and finding blood flowing from his neck . The inference he wishes

drawn from this is that his wife had attacked him during his sleep , and afterwards killed herself . A verdict of " Wilful Murder " was returned by the jury , and Cogan will be committed to Newgate for trial . The man Beamish has undergone a final examination before the coroner at Coventry , charged with having poisoned his wife and infant child . He was committed for trial . On Tuesday the inquiry at Brighton into the Clayton Tunnel accident was brought to a close . In their verdict the jury essay to enumerate the causes which appear to them to have con . tributcd directly and indirectly to the catastropheand apportion the

, blame accordingly . Charles Legg , assistant station-master at Brighton , is found guilty of manslaughter . John Scott , the engine driver , is found , by mistake , to have contributed in some degree to the accident through backing his train ; the signalmen , at each end of the tunnel , through the defective state of the apparatus , which they had negleeted to report to the superintendent . The ground of the verdict against Legg was for the manner in which the trains had been started on the Sunday morning . In the case of a man who was killed a few days ago on the Brighton line , through not perceiving an approaching train , the jury

have returned a verdict of Accidental Death ; but they do not apparently acquit the company of all blame , for they recommend " that the whistle should he sounded more frequently while trains are passing through stations . "' -The inquest has also been concluded on the bodies of the unfortunate individuals who were killed by the accident on the North London Railway at Kentish Town . At the close of the inquiry the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased met their deaths through tho negligence of Henry Bayner , and that the directors and managers are much to be censured for not emploj-ing more experienced persons as signalmen . This of course amounts to a verdict of manslaughter against Rayner , who is only nineteen years of age , and had

the magnificent salary , for a situation of trust , of 14 s . a week . On Friday night an inquest was held on the body of an unknown lady , who was killed on the Great AVostern Railway , having foolishly ventured on the line just as a train was coming up . On Saturday a coroner ' s jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against an omnibus conductor , named Martin , who was charged with having caused the death of an omnibus driver in a quarrel which took place when the vehicle was iu motion . Both men fell , and the conductor himself sustained considerable injury . An extraordinary and most lamentable accident happened

to two unfortunate servant-girls on Sunday in an hotel in Norfolk Street , close to the water-side . The door of the kitchen , it appears , opens on the river , and one of the girls , in accordance with her custom , opened it for the purpose of ascertaining the time by looking at the Westminster clock tower , aud nufortunately fell into the water . Her fellow-servant endeavoured to save her , but both of them were carried away by the tide The former was saved , but the hapless girl who first fell iu perished brfore assistance could reach her . An inquest has been held by Mr . Langbam , deputy coroner for AVest-minster' on the body of Alary Maloney ,

who died from a stab with a knife , at Leg Court , on Monday afternoon . The husband of the deceased woman is in custody , charged with her murder . Maloney ' s statement is that his wife stabbed herself . The two would appear to have lived rather a rough life , what with drinking and its consequent brawling and fighting . In the first instance it was believed that there was no witness to thc woman ' s death but her husband , and that even if it were a case of murder , a difficulty would be found in proving the fact . If tho testimony of a witness is to be receivedhoweverwho has now come forwardwe have here what can

, , , scarcely be considered less than a special interposition for the conviction of a murderer . The witness referred to is a labourer , named Saunders , and on the day of the woman ' s death had gone to that neighbourhood in search of lodgings—an entire stranger to the place—and having no acquaintance with anyone in it . His story is , that seeing a door ajar , he put his head into the room , with the intention of making some inquiry . At that moment he saw the prisoner Maloney strike the knife into his wife ' s neck , inflicting the wound from which she fell dead . The whole was but the work of an instant , and this unseen witness of

the murder withdrew his head , and gave the alarm . Tho result was a verdict of Wilful Murder against AAllliam Maloney , the husband of the deceased woman . What militates against the evidence of Saunders is the fact of his having raised no alarm when he had seen the woman murdered ; otherwise , however , he is shown to be a man worthy of credit . The men who were engaged in the works of the Metropolitan Underground Railway at the Clerkenwell end of the New Victoria Street had a narrow escape from death on Saturday . It appears that while some men were engaged in removing a portion of the New River Company ' s main pipe , it suddenly burst , causing immense torrents of water to pour down the shaft into the tunnel . Happily assistance was promptly rendered , and the men who were exposed to